Aspirants for posts of lecturers in the health and medical education department said on Tuesday that new recruitment rule that require applicants to have 24 published papers “is an impossibility” that will only foster corruption and downgrade the quality of medical literature.

A delegation of the aspirants told Greater Kashmir that Public Service Commission’s amended rules contravened the guidelines of the Medical Council of India and Dental Council of India that require only three to four publications at the entry level.

“Such rules do not apply anywhere in India. They will marginalise the meritorious aspirants,” the delegation said.

“There are many who can spent money to have papers published in publication houses with zero credibility. Even the best publication houses publish only two to three publications per year so it is impossible to maintain quality of publications if we are asked to publish 24 papers,” they said. One of the aspirants said interview should carry the maximum weightage for selection rather than “bad quality publications”.

“And if a doctor dedicates himself to publication of such a huge number of papers where does he find the time for patient care and academics,” he said.

The PSC amended rules recently said 24 original research articles carry the weight of 6 points in the examination for lecturers’ post.

PSC chairman Latief-u-Zaman Deva said the aspirants need not to worry because “we are not going to accept publications randomly”.

“We have identified around eight journals from which we will accept publications so there is no question of lowering the quality of publications or accepting low-standard publications,” he said.

He said each publication is equivalent to 0.25 point and aspirants will need to have 16 publications to get through.